Friday, May 24, 2013

On
Thursday, May 23, Boy Scouts of America decided to lift
a ban on openly gay scouts that had been in place throughout the
organization’s 103-year history.

I'm
pleased that the BSA decided to approve the measure to lift the ban on gay
scouts. Like the steps the Mormon Church has taken in recent months, it is
encouraging to see movement in the right direction.

One
of my favorite life lessons I learned from a fictional character, Atticus Finch
from "To Kill a Mockingbird." Atticus, you'll recall, was the white
attorney who represented black defendants in an Alabama murder trial. The lesson I learned
from Atticus Finch was that change happens incrementally. As much as we'd like
to believe humanity is wise and kind enough to right decades (and sometimes
centuries) of wrongdoing with a single grand event, it just doesn't happen that
way. While I believe humanity will always make progress, it will be progress in
spirals. Progress and change are a process--and with this victory we can
clearly see that the process has begun.

Yet,
still embedded into Scouting policy and culture is the message that as a gay
youth, you might be okay when you're young, but rejection is imminent. And as
we now know, profound evidence-based research done by The Family Acceptance Project
tells us rejection is the leading risk factor for LGBT youth when it comes to
health issues, including depression and suicide.

Moreover, because gay leaders would be
banned from working with youth, there is a message here confusing being gay
with pedophilia, and once again, science has borne out that those are two very
different things. It’s as if Boy Scouts of America believes that while we might
be marginally acceptable as youth, upon our 18th birthday a magical
switch is flipped transforming us from being part of the family of humanity and
into sexual predators.

So like Atticus Finch, let's recognize the
goodness here--that we are indeed moving in the right direction. But let's not
confuse taking a step in the right direction with completing the journey.